Lying to the DM With Coyote and Crow's 'Ahu Tiiko' Expansion

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Whenever we talk about a setting book or campaign book for a TTRPG, the DM often views the source text as a definitive source that describes all of the realities of the story and the world. It’s like the “Bible” for your setting, elaborating on the motives and narrative. That’s not to say that a DM won’t ever change up the story or add things for their players, but Curse of Strahd as a text sets the standard for what sort of story is about to be told by the players.

Ahu Tiiko, an upcoming horror-themed release from Coyote and Crow Games and the first expansion for the setting, aims to turn this on its head. The book openly tells readers (including the DM) that the book lies.

This was done for two reasons, according to Coyote and Crow Games owner Kenna Alexander.

The first goal is to keep the book engaging for non-DMs, as it’s all too common for TTRPG fans to buy books without ever playing them (a personal experience I can attest to).

The second notion is based on a Cherokee concept about how “stories are lies and storytellers are called liars.” This isn’t meant to be derogatory, but rather the realization that a good liar is often a good storyteller as well.

“I wanted to sort of throw the storytellers a bit of a curveball by saying ‘this book is going to spell out a bunch of information,’ but I'm not going to tell you what of the content is true and what is not,” Alexander explained. “I'll let the story guides [CaC’s term for GMs] develop their own ideas about reality and truth, and then let them decide on the fly what’s real alongside their group,” Alexander argued. This approach helps the storyteller to tell different stories with each different table.

Another interesting aspect of the text that Alexander adopted was the inclusion of codes and images throughout the book that they hope players will discover and decode. It’s a neat addition to the text, much like how Gravity Falls fans did with the Book of Bill. Alexander didn’t allude to what those codes might reveal, but they hoped that fans would find the contents exciting. These codes will provide a lot more insight into Ahu Tiiko as a region, and Alexander said they’re very excited to see who discovers it first.

"I wanted to give the casual reader something to latch onto as they scroll through the book and to have a good time without actually having to sit down with a session with players,” Alexander noted.

Ahu Tiiko and Indigenous Horror

Ahu Tiiko successfully raised funds in July 2024 and released PDFs in late August to backers. But the book is built around the concept of “indigenous horror,” a subgenre of horror that doesn’t get a significant amount of attention.

Horror comes in several flavors genre-wise for people to enjoy, whether it is the Lovecraftian expanse of cosmic horror, the biologically macabre body horror or the literary-inclined gothic horror. Each subgenre explores a different aspect of reality and our lives that we find scary for various reasons, and each subgenre also

There’s something for everyone, and each genre offers a unique element of fear and cultural exploration that others can’t. Indigenous horror (or horror stories written with Native American history and themes in mind) is no exception. “A lot of cultures, when you're talking about horror, you're talking about warnings,” Kenna Alexander, owner of Coyote and Crow Games, told TTRPG Insider. “You're talking about legends or stories that come out of an idea. There's a reason and a parable behind the story you're telling, usually aimed at kids or folks you're trying to impress with some significant meaning.”

Some of the mythos, such as Deer Woman, have gained more traction in the public imagination in recent years. Other authors, like Stephen Graham Jones, have made the genre central to their storytelling. But that’s what Alexander hopes to do with Ahu Tiiko. The book combines classic story concepts, such as missing people or strange VR experiences, with flavors of the indigenous cultures contained in the book. The region of Ahu Tiiko itself is an isolated town set up outside of civilization with limited access to resources. While Coyote and Crow is a setting with high levels of science fiction technology, Alexander tried to tell a story where those assets wouldn’t be enough to stop the supernatural threats at play.

The isolation also reflected the closeness that some indigenous communities felt when compared to other parts of society. “When you're talking about indigenous communities who oftentimes can be very tight within their tribe or nation, a single death can have massive effects on that community. While this is a town full of horror and mystery, I also tried to portray it as a place where all the people of this town don't actually die very often. And so that somebody dying potentially by foul play is a significant, big impact on that town.”

Alexander also wanted to explore what it meant to live in these communities, pointing to an interview with David Lynch talking about Twin Peaks that influenced their approach to Ahu Tiiko. “Most television starts a story with a murder, but then really rapidly focuses on the people solving that murder and then catching the murderer,” Alexander explained. “Lynch thought that there was much more to be told, and it was a much more important story to reveal who the victim was and who their family was and how it affected their community.”

There’s also the question of the role that a community can play in why a murder happens. The communities around these murders are often culpable in some manner through inaction, through passive behavior. The villain in a story often isn’t some grandiose mustache-twirling bad guy who shows up; they are created and fester within a community over time. Alexander hopes that Ahu Tiiko’s story will capture that unique community environment in the tales it aims to tell.

Thanks to Kenna for chatting with us!

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